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Given the feedback I’ve gotten from some of you regarding my Friday Open Thread, I thought I’d try putting out a weekly topical thread on Wednesdays to liven up the midweek.

If you have ideas for a topical thread, you can shoot me an email at iliu@timesunion.com. I’m hoping that this will spur a thoughtful discussion and not devolve into partisan sniping. (please?)
So here it goes…

Since we’re in primary mode, I thought I’d stick to an election topic. This year’s election is unlike any we’ve seen in recent history (mind you, my whole history boils down to Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush), in that we have both party races in a total free-for-all – no incumbent, on-again off-again front runners, and an election infrastructure that has been turned on its head.

It all seems to distract from the beauty that is the basic act of voting. You cast your ballot, it translates into a vote for your candidate, the most votes determines the winner, or so we think. Who would have thought so many variables factor into such a simple transaction – early vs. late states, primary calendar, voting machines, party rules about delegates, caucuses, etc.

Is our primary system democratic? If you could design it, how would you change it?

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Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.